Monday 28 March 2016

Club AIR, Amstelstraat 16, 1017 DA Amsterdam, Netherlands - Moda Black - 26 March 2016

What a horrible, nasty, shitty, shitty club.
Rip off puck up joint!
Staff are rubbish. Unfriendly, unhelpful and bar service is miserable, slow. They let people push in front all the time at the entrance and at the bar.
To add insult to injury neither dj could spin! The bar upstairs was some excuse playing uninspiring records and spending most of his time at the bar. downstairs the vj was banal, offensively sexist and not even hot - which would have excused the sexism. The two dancers couldn't dance and the dj was worse than my four year old nephew. We did our best but dancing was pretty impossible to such mediocre mixing.
Which might not be a problem as no one seems to go there to dance anyway!
I should probably add that a friend with us - Polish living in UK was upset by the obvious racism of both staff and clientèle towards people of colour throughout the place!

Sunday 13 March 2016

De Betere Tijden, Gelkingestraat 21, 9711 NA Groningen, Netherlands

Nice, friendly, good service.
Food is OK, not special but, a very reasonable price most around 10 euros. In comparison I thought the Chef's special at 12.50 was over priced (absolutely not complaining!) Not generous portions definitely adequate.
I asked about the changing stuffing on the mushroom and was told red peppers (paprika) and pesto - I checked if it was basil pesto (yes) which struck me as not something I was even willing to try!
I really don't understand burgers with no flavouring but that is apparently how people make them here. A slab of lightly cooked mince with not even salt and pepper doesn't do it for me
We had 6 burgers, with (bad, cheap) cheddar and roseval potatoes which were cooked but still pale. I don't do bread, without the generous crusty bap, the patty looked quite sad. There was no lettuce or tomato, gherkin, ketchup, or mayo with the burger, a goodly side garnish kinda made up for it.
There was supposed to be some kind of beet salad but it wasn't on the plate!
One of us had the Hungarian sauerkraut, it came with a gehakt ball that was more than 40% breadcrumbs, the flavour of the saurkraut was good but it was a small portion.
The cheese plate was laughable! Tiny little squares of pecorino and belgen, some small sliced of too cold, too young brie (no flavour) and more garnish and fruit than cheese - but it was only 5 euros, I would rather pay a bit more and get a bit better
The wine was fabulous - we had the most expensive which at 21 a bottle did not break the bank. it was a lovely Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon
Shame all the tap beers were so strong.
I don't think I'd go again.
They were really cool about us making a fair amount of noise while we played dice.
I recommend it for anyone with a low budget or if you've had some horrid experiences with people being rude or unfriendly but, if money isn't an issue , and you don't need a safe haven and would like some great nosh - try somewhere else

Medini Cafe @ Groninger museum

This placed typified everything that drives me crazy about this country and its version of service
Very nice placement over the water, the café is part of the iconic Groninger museum building. Inside leads directly into the museum with a sunny terrace outside.


The terrace doesn't have enough chairs! Two chairs per table is not enough. We spent the time we were there after we'd finally got somewhere to sit with all seven of us watching people play musical chairs without the music.
to add insult to injury - if you moved you were as near as damn it insulted and then humiliated by the waitress for messing up their ordering system. Which was also dreadful an average of 15 minutes to get a drink which is ridiculous especially when it was one beer which by the time it arrived had no head and was flat.


We arrived at 13.15 on a Saturday and ordered gin and tonics from someone who had no qualms making it non verbally very clear that she did not approve of the order! When the drinks arrived 20 minutes later there was no ice.
I asked for ice, the (different waitress to bring the drinks) avoided answering until the third request and finally as she was leaving she tossed over her shoulder that 'we don't have ice".
We dribbled out of the exhibition slowly and went back to the café - no new chairs, even more people standing around tables, waiting for others to leave to be able to use them and many people sitting around the big concrete placements for the umbrellas.


We ordered a fish and chips to stave of the hunger while everyone came back. It looked fantastic. the batter was way to thick and only just cooked in the middle and very sweet, the fish was in tiny blocks in the batter chewy and over cooked. The tartar/remoulade was way too sweet, too much dill, not enough gherkins and not enough for the fish and the chips. The chips were good - very small portion!

 Ordered a second round of g&t's and asked about the ice again to be told directly "we do not have or serve ice" I was gobsmacked and asked why - which was ignored.

When the drinks came they had no lemon - which I found really too much I asked for some lemon and for some reason also some ice. Everyone reminded me that the head waitress had already told us they didn't have it. At which point the (third) waitress came back with two glasses of ice with lemon in them!


So on top of being unfriendly, judgemental, rude, incompetent and surly they are also liars!


I put this review on google with a fat 1 star!